A Special Thank You to the citizens who cared enough to step forward and put themselves out there on the ballot to be considered [read: knocked around] as prospective elected officials, but fell short: I'm looking at you Donna Hernandez, Eric Elza, Constantino Hernandez, Kathie Marquez and Martin Marquez. Having worked closely on campaigns that ended in victory as well as some that didn't - I will say that "those who talk far outnumber those who know." Let no person (or at least, no person who has never had their​ name on the ballot) minimize your contributions based solely on the returns - an election result is merely that...and I hope that your zeal for - and engagement with - our community and the issues it faces continue undiminished.

​Last, but most assuredly not least, Thank You to the newest members of our Council, Councilwoman Maria Mitchell and Councilwoman Mara Zapata; and our returning members, Mayor Billy Bain, Vice Mayor Bob Best, and Councilman Jaime Petralanda - who have some idea of what they're getting into, and stepped forward anyway. I know I speak for many in the community when I tell you that our hopes are high and we're expecting great things from you. Good luck to you all.

OK, there's a lot of ground to cover, so I'll probably break this into a couple of pieces.

First, I'd like to clarify - this post - like my others on campaign finance - is a commentary on the state of campaign finance in the hopes of getting some traction in reforming campaign finance and bringing integrity back to our elections at *every* level of government: Federal, State, and Local.

With that, I'd like to share a few mail pieces that have been sent by an "Electioneering Communications Organization" (also known as a "527" or "ECO") called "Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership" - a name too long to type over and over, so we'll just call them "CFEEL."

The gallery below depicts three mailers I've received at my home over the past two years from CFEEL. Note carefully, these are not campaign literature, as they do not use any of the "eight magic words" defined by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo as "express advocacy" which would be subject to campaign finance laws.

The "magic words" as defined in Buckley are "vote for," "elect," "support," "cast your ballot for," "Smith for Congress," "vote against," "defeat," "reject," and variations of those phrases. Anything using the "magic words" has to be paid for by campaign using the kind of fundraising money that is reflected in your donor reports.

There's something else all the pieces have in common. See if you can find it. I'll wait...

Did you see it?

OK, so CFEEL was back again for this election cycle, sending at least two mail pieces ("at least" because received two, but there may have been others) that were, again *fully legal* and *not electioneering* since they passed the magic words test.

See if you can find what this year's two mailers have in common...

It's a little bit like how DeBeers says "A Diamond Is Forever" and sends a clear message without ever telling you, "Go Buy A Diamond!"

Finally, I wonder if you noticed anything else interesting regarding the layout and design of the preceding mail pieces? They were sent months (or years) apart, so it would be easy for the average person to miss certain similarities in real time.

​Take another look before scrolling down...

No fair looking!

OK, here are a 2015 mailing and a 2017 mailing side-by-side.

Then - 2015

Now - 2017

Then - 2015

Now - 2017

Yes, they really are two different mailers.

While recycling copy and layout for different campaigns and different mailings might certainly be considered "efficient", I'm not sure it is either "ethical" or "effective".

Eric ElzaFormer Councilman Eric Elza reports a total of $570 in campaign income, all self-loaned, which covers the $103 filing fee and $420 in campaign signs. The one discrepancy is with expenditures, on his "G3" report (p.3 of attachment) he reflects a payment of $1,475 to the River Cities Gazette for newspaper advertising, but there is no reported income to offset. I'm guessing this is an oversight and I've reached out to Mr. Elza to get clarification. UPDATE: Elza confirms that he is filing an amended report today 4/3 to reflect an additional loan of $1475 - bringing his total campaign to $2045, all self-funded. Nothing else of note with respect to his other qualifying documents.

Donna HernandezMs. Hernandez reports a total of of $3,359.12 in contributions, $2,124.12 of which is self-funded. Her largest single contribution is $675 from "Miriam and Evelio Cabrera" on 3/8. I note this only because Mr. Cabrera also appears as the top contributor on the donor lists of Candidates Martin Marquez ($300 on 3/20 and an additional $250 on 3/27) and Kathie Marquez (identical contributions of $300 on 3/20 and $250 on 3/27.)Cabrera is President of Zimmerman Auto Brokers on NW 36th Street.Ms. Hernandez's candidate petition was a group effort, with no fewer than 8 individual canvassers collecting signatures, including Hernandez herself. She is the only candidate to have petitions circulated by a sitting member of the Miami Springs City Council, Hon. Roslyn Buckner (pp.32-33 of attachment).

Billy Bain update:We have received a response from State Sen. Rene Garcia of the PAC, "People In Need of Government Accountability" with respect to their $1000 contribution. The Senator's reply begins at the bottom of page 1 and goes over the page 2. Because it appeared to have come from a personal account, I chose to partially redact the email address.

See you at the Polls - again, comments and feedback welcome at springsobserver@gmail.com. No matter who you vote for, be sure to vote Miami Springs! s/o

So, in my original post I introduced myself and dropped the disclosures for the Mayor's race without further elaboration. I apologize, I wanted to be sure to get all the documentation posted first and foremost - and this race has the most to discuss, perhaps fittingly. The collective field for Mayor is an embarrassment of riches for the community with respect to passion, integrity, experience, dedication, leadership, service, and judgment. The challenge will be cutting through the bluster to find the right combination. Let's break down the documentation.

Finally, there are contributions of $1000 each from the Orwellian-sounding "People in Need of Government Accountability PAC" (which, coincidentally, is a shoo-in for the "Most Unfortunate Acronym" award) and "Fighting for Florida's Families PAC", as well as $1000 from the more benign "Miami Realtors PAC". The influx of PAC money is out of character for Bain. His 6-0 win/loss record in Miami Springs elections is a testament to his natural, friendly manner. Instead, it's the outgoing Mayor who is a particularly prodigious fundraiser. Given that his reports reflect payments of $829.25, $3,049.50, and $829.25 to the outgoing Mayor's firm ZMG Media, Inc. for printing and mailing, it's unclear who is getting the greatest benefit of those PAC dollars. I have reached out to find out how those contributions came about, and will update with any new information I receive there. UPDATE! Response received from the Chair of "People in Need of Government Accountability," State Senator Rene Garcia - HERE.

With respect to the other qualifying documents, nothing jumped out except that all of the qualifying petition signatures appear to have been collected by Billy's spouse, former Councilwoman Grace Bain. Except for one sheet that was circulated by Ms. Nora Lob, spouse of former Councilman George Lob.

So I guess we can't say, "Bain and Martin Marquez have nothing in common."

​(That's a joke - c'mon, there's no reason this can't be fun...)​To be continued... s/o

The winner of Seat 3 will be a "freshman" Councilwoman, as first-time candidates Kathie A. Marquez and Mara Zapata bid for election. Let's take a look at the campaign documents.

Kathie A. MarquezMs. Marquez reports $1,500 raised, including $200 from herself and $300 from Urbanworks, which is her spouse Mr. Martin L. Marquez's firm. Minor irregularity, Ms. Marquez neglected to sign her "G1" and "G2" reports (pages 4 and 7), and reminiscent of husband Martin's "G1" report, there is $100 styled as a "loan" on page 7, but the itemized list on page 8 reflects a cash contribution. The striking similarity between the reports (down to some of the errors) does little to dispel the perception that husband and wife will be unable to work independently as simultaneous members of the Miami Springs City Council.

Mara ZapataMs. Zapata reports $7210.17 raised, including loans of $1,340 to herself. Full disclosure: I wrote her campaign a check for $250...it's in the report. Sue me. I also see where she received a $1,000 contribution from the "Miami Realtors PAC" as did Ms. Mitchell in Seat 2. As I mentioned in the Seat 2 post, this is not a "big money" PAC, and the way you know this is that their two largest contributors each gave $1,000, and they have (according to their report) more than 14,500 individual contributions under $100 each...including a $20 contribution in January 2017 from Constantino Hernandez.Turning to the qualifying documents, she stands in 2nd place in terms of "Former Council" signatures on her petition with three: Hon, George Lob, Michael Windrem and Jennifer Ator. Again, in the spirit of disclosure, I signed her petition too, but whatever. I'm less interested in appearing "fair" and more concerned with being truthful and transparent. If something looks bad, attempting to cover it up only amplifies it. In that vein, if (when) I blow it and get something wrong here, I will do my very best to make it right.

Turning to the qualifying documents, while Mr. and Ms. Marquez shared the roles of Campaign Treasurer, each serving the other's campaign - it appears that the canvassing for petition signatures was all on Ms. Marquez, who circulated the petitions for both.

I welcome all reader feedback (even if it's not a love letter) - but if you're going to write, please sign your name. The page for cowardly yahoos who won't stand behind their words is here.

​Finally, I would like to reiterate here that my observations with respect to the candidates' submissions are merely that. My observations. Further, to remind the reader that appending meaning to "who signed what" is not necessarily the best proxy for determining the relative merit or value of a candidate.

The winner of Seat 2 will be a first-time member of the Miami Springs Council - and it is between two campaign veterans, Constantino Hernandez and Martin L. Marquez; and first-time candidate Maria Puente Mitchell. Let's break down the documents and finances.

Maria Puente MitchellMs. Mitchell reports $3,950 raised, including $1300 of her own and $500 from her spouse. She also received $1,000 from something called the "Miami Realtors PAC" . Looking at its documents and donor lists, it looks as though basically every Realtor in Miami-Dade is invited to make some kind of contribution, mostly in the $20-$100 range. Not a big-money PAC like some of the others we'll see. Full disclosure: both my spouse and I signed her petition for candidacy.

Constantino HernandezMr. Hernandez reports $6,509.57 raised, including some $4574.57 of his own money. As with Councilman Jaime Petralanda, I noted (legally permissible) contributions of $500 each from Miami Springs vendors Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. and Waste Management, Inc.Looking at his candidate petitions, I noted no fewer than 4 former Councilmembers (Hon. Helen Gannon, Grace Bain, George Lob, and Eric Elza.)

Martin L. MarquezMr. Marquez reports $1,500 raised, including $100 from himself, $100 from his spouse and Seat 3 candidate Kathie Marquez, and $300 from his own firm, Urbanworks. There are some minor irregularities, for example he failed to sign his "G1" (see p.7 of the uploaded doc), and has $100 listed as a "loan" where on that report's itemized list (see p.8) the only $100 entry is not a loan but a cash contribution from "S" meaning self. Also, the contribution is not from Mr. Marquez, but from his spouse. Looking at the candidate petitions, the only detail that stood out was that all the signatures appeared to have been collected by his spouse, Kathie Marquez.

In the first post, we saw the filings from the Mayoral candidates, and here are those for the two candidates who won re-election unopposed. Councilman Best ran a shoestring operation, loaning himself $500 and spending only $85 to pay the required candidate filing fee.

Not for nothing, but Becker & Poliakoff is the City's lobbying firm, and WMI is the solid waste disposal provider for Miami-Dade County, and Miami Springs re-approved our interlocal agreement with Miami-Dade (thus sending our solid waste business and dollars to WMI.)

Later I will check, but I doubt that the Miami Springs Charter or Code has any explicit rule against accepting campaign contributions from city vendors. I am confident that it's a bad practice - even if only for the perception.

To wit: the motion to send our business to the County and thus, Waste Management passed 5-0. Doubtless it was the right decision. But , but when you accept a contribution from a vendor, and then second a motion that benefits that vendor, it invites speculation. The good news it's not too late to return contributions like these.

Finally, I want to reiterate that I feel Councilman Petralanda is a decent and honest public servant, and this is not to single him out, as there were a number of candidates who accepted large, outside sums, and I mean to discuss them all here. It also bears repeating that acceptance of campaign support does not automatically equate to impropriety, and it's unfair to suggest otherwise without evidence.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics, does not mean that politics won't take an interest in you.

- Source unverified, but attributed *all over the internet* to the Greek philosopher Pericles...which merely underscores the hazards of copying someone else's research instead of looking it up for yourself.